More choice and control

The aim of a personal health budget is to give people more choice and control over the money spent on meeting their health and wellbeing needs.

Personal health budget support the vision of a more personalised, patient-focused NHS. NHS England's website has more information and advice about the new scheme.

Mark's story

Watch how personal health budgets have transformed Mark and his family's life.

Who can have a personal health budget?

We aim to support as many patients as possible to create a personal health budget, but the Northern, Eastern and Western Devon CCG has limited resources and cannot guarantee that all requests will be successful.

The CCG is undertaking a detailed analysis to understand how it can support patients to take greater control of their own care and in the future hopes to increase the numbers of patients controlling their own personal health budgets.

Currently the CCG can offer a personal health budgets to people in the following groups of people:

1. Adults and Children with Continuing Healthcare (CHC) or Continuing Care (CC) funding

The CCG adheres to the NHS England ‘Guidance on the “right to have” a personal health budget in Adult NHS Continuing Healthcare and Children and Young People’s Continuing Care. Adults and children in receipt of Continuing Healthcare (CHC) funding living in the community are eligible for a personal health budget if they want one.

In addition to those funded through Continuing Healthcare (CHC), the CCG can offer personal health budgets to some other people who can benefit.

The CCG is not in the position to ‘double fund’ services (pay again for a service that we have already paid for through one of our existing healthcare contracts) however we are committed to supporting individual choice and control where we have the flexibility to do this within existing contracts and funding arrangements.

People with individually commissioned care packages, for example, adults and children with complex learning disabilities or mental health disorders, may be able to access a personal health budget depending on their individual circumstances.

3. People participating in the Integrated Personal Commissioning (IPC) Programme

In order to respond to national requirements and significantly expand personal health budgets by 2020, the CCG is participating in the Integrated Personal Commissioning (IPC) programme.

The IPC programme will enable us to broaden our personal health budget offer by helping us to target the approach at those who can gain the most benefit.

The groups being targeted for the expansion within the IPC programme are:

People with multiple long-term conditions, particularly older people with frailty

Children and young people with complex needs, particularly those eligible for education, health and care (EHC) plans

People with learning disabilities and autism, particularly those with high support needs and challenging behaviour, including those who are in institutional settings or at risk of placement

People receiving end of life care

People funded through Continuing Healthcare (CHC)

If you think you might be eligible for the IPC programme, because you fall into one of the groups listed above, please discuss this with your healthcare coordinator or contact the CCG’s Personal Health Budget team:

If I am eligible for a personal health budget, what happens next?

If you are eligible for a personal health budget, the following steps must be followed before your budget can be made available to you:

Assessment of your health and wellbeing needs and the collection of information relating to the levels of current health and care services used to support you

A calculation needs to be done so we can tell you how much money is in your personal budget. This is called an Indicative budget

Your Person-Centred Support plan needs to be developed – this means working out what things or services you need to buy, to keep you healthy and well and meet the agreed outcomes.

You must decide if you want to manage the money yourself through a Direct Payment or you want the NHS to continue to manage your care and support on your behalf (this is called a Notional Budget) or a third party organisation such as a charity to manage the budget on your behalf (this is called Third Party Budget).

Your person-centred support plan approved by the NHS.

Buy the health services or support you need.

Agree to participate in regular reviews

What information, advice and support is available to me?

The evaluation of the personal health budget pilot programme showed that having the right information and support is key to achieving the best outcomes with a personal health budget. The CCG has therefore invested in independent support, advice and brokerage services to help people in Devon.

The CCG provides information and leaflets on personal health budgets and integrated personal commissioning. These are available on request from the CCG’s Personal Health Budget Delivery Team, your Care Coordinator, or in an electronic format below.

Working with your local council

The CCG works with local authorities to use the same support providers and has set up consistent processes for paying your individual budget. This means that people who have a personal budget from both the council and CCG, or who move from the council to CCG funding, will have a better experience.

Please note that we are using the same approach as the council, but NHS care, unlike social care, is not means tested.

The links below will provide more information about personal budgets offered by your local council:

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About Us

NHS NEW Devon CCG - Northern, Eastern and Western Devon CCG is one of the largest in the country with a registered population of 882,800 served by 116 member practices. It is organised on a three locality basis, ensuring the CCG will be responsive to the needs of local people whilst benefitting from economies of scale where things only need to be done once. Through our vision, mission and core strategies we will place patients and public at the heart of commissioning. We have enshrined this in our constitution and in our organisational design principles.